Project description
Waste management practices in late medieval Italy
Did waste management practices develop as a result of the growing economy and increased consumption at the end of the Middle Ages? The reuse, repair and recycling of materials played a crucial role in medieval urban society due to high costs and narrow profit margins. The MSCA-funded ReLMI project will create the first-ever social and economic history of the management, conversion and reuse of discarded materials in late medieval Italy through a detailed analysis of three case studies: Fabriano, Florence, and Bergamo, along with their respective hinterlands. By using unpublished documents, conducting archaeological surveys and using GIS web resources, the project explores how medieval crafts repurposed discarded materials and became integral practices in the urban economy of late medieval Italy.
Objective
My project aims to produce the first social and economic history of cast-offs management and conversion and reuse in late medieval Italy through the analysis of three case-studies, Fabriano, Florence and Bergamo and their hinterland. By examining the circulation of cast-offs in medieval crafts, identifying practices of reuse, repair, recycling and upcycling, as well as by discovering networks of waste management, this project seeks to suggest that certain crafts eventually become embedded practices in the urban economy of late medieval Italy. My aim is to demonstrate that in medieval urban society, where raw materials were expensive and profit margins tight, the re-employment of scraps and by-products was an essential part of craft strategy. The goal is to verify that general economic growth and rise of consumption at the end of the Middle Ages stimulated the use of waste and recycling, and therefore, alternative forms of production to those traditionally employing raw materials. Academic research in the fields of archaeology, material culture, and, more recently consumption has rarely used historical data and material findings together, and generally have considered each element of reuse, repair, and recycling in isolation. My project on Italy in the Middle Ages instead examines all three elements of reuse, repair, and recycling by looking at previously unexplored and unpublished documentary evidence combined with data coming from archaeological surveys and GIS web resources. This will assist in the reconstruction of the technological, economic and social processes that turned cast-offs into complex and tradeable commodities. The cycle of waste, the key role of artisans and producers, their guilds, and on the foreground, institutional policies in cast-offs management will be all pieced together.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
46010 Valencia
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.